Sword of Jade original version tech support thread

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ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

These sfx are solid man! Cohesive; sounds like they could all be from the same game!
ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

That describes the start of nearly every relationship I've been in, so clearly I haven't learned.
Sounds about right.

As for walking into the mouth of an animal... Jack Sparrow did it.
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FyreWulff
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Post by FyreWulff »

I LEAVE THIS THREAD ALONE FOR JUST ONE SEC... er, WEE- , er MONTH AND SEE WHAT HAPPENS

But yes, the countdown toggle that stops it from being a game over is just going to make Gahn taunt you relentlessly until you earn days back. In this state, completing battles will earn days (yes, this goes against in-game dialogue, but whatever) until you get back above a certain number of days. It'll be like one of those come-back montages in a film but in a vidma gram

I've been working two jobs for the past 3 months but it looks like I'll finally be able to get down to actual work on this in March, hence the lack of posts since then.


sfx will be implemented, it's just when they originally showed up they always played at MAX VOLUME but that's been fixed now as far as I know.


re: transitions between time phases, yeah, i've thought about that a lot. If we had made this game in the engine now it obviously would have been one map per location as i would have just scripted it to switch the tileset when needed, which wasn't possible then. It could be possible to implement a sort of animation where the new day phase quickly "sweep wipes" past you but I'd have to see how generic I could make such a script because if i have to custom hand make it for each map and transition it's not happening. NPCs would still blink in and out because there's no alpha transparency

edit: and yeah you can't launch the original DOS jade in Windows 7 because they entirely removed the DOS subsystem on 64 bit. You can only run DOS programs on Vista/7/8/10 if you install the 32 bit version of Windows, so you need DOSBOX or VirtualPC to play that version now
Last edited by FyreWulff on Mon Feb 25, 2019 9:33 am, edited 6 times in total.
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charbile
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Post by charbile »

oh yeah, forgot about dosbox. Thanks!

I recently had trouble with the reverse for sound fx. The music was so loud it drowned out all but the highest pitch sounds. Sound design is another important hat to wear that really wears down on the burden of game making.

Time phase transitions: a simple message display (dont even have to waitforclick) saying it's now AFTERNOON would do wonders, BUT

If you're having to work two jobs, this would definitely become a third one. I don't think it's worth it, in a non-personal / professional-only serious business time way. Of course I'd like to see you update it, but not at the opportunity cost of everything else you could be doing. I mean, what kind of idiot would spend time making another ohr game on the side. ... At least you haven't succumb to the endless contests.

you know, while im here and on fire, will just add some loose remarks like why not VR? could be the first ohr game on an oculus rift. think about it. first person, immersive. in a lot of ways, it'd probably be easier. don't have to mess with the camera, it's just wherever the player is looking, all built in. now, when they finally get tactile response suits out of r&d, that's the time to strike. this is when the ohr will enter the second golden age, where you can really feel the action. i've seen the tech. naturally you wont even have to worry with gahn taunt texts, it's just be a quick voice ASMR work, whispering directly into the player's ear
Last edited by charbile on Fri Mar 01, 2019 3:09 am, edited 1 time in total.
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FyreWulff
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Post by FyreWulff »

i've always wanted to remake this game in 3D in some form and came painfully close to securing the funding

painfully close.

it's always on my mind for us to work on a 3D form of this.. it's just a matter of when


the two jobs are due to me attempting to pull off an overseas within a year so getting extra funds for that. late last year I went on a solo roadtrip to the east coast (Nebraska->Iowa->Illinois->Indiana->Ohio->West Virginia->Virginia->Rochester, New York->Boston->Bangor, Maine->Boston again and then a marathon 24 hour drive back through a bunch of states to Nebraska)

either way the second job is temporary and won't always be taking up the time it does right now

and yeah i know this is a bit of a time taker but after some long mental review i just sort of felt like i needed to do it to close a mental chapter. it will truly be the last time i touch this game once this update is done. it just needs a bit o spit shine to deal with the breakage from the engine upgrades etc

also the update is fairly feature locked so it's doable in scope and I'm leaving behind hooks to make it easier for others to update it themselves


edit4: I could add a string on the screen that says the day phase for a moment on each transition. Jade predated custom postionable screen string text, that's how freakin' old it is
Last edited by FyreWulff on Fri Mar 01, 2019 8:42 am, edited 8 times in total.
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charbile
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Post by charbile »

edit5: Securing the funding?!?! WHAT

what does pull an overseas mean? I've never left the southeast outside of maybe a field trip to dc.

closing mental chapters is real talk. can understand. i think the secret reason i keep coming back and making a quick game now and then is probably to hit the reset button on my mental reviews. detox with the ohr. cleanse the palate.
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FyreWulff
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Post by FyreWulff »

After some discussion with Char and others on the Discord, a Steam release of this game is now in the cards. For this to happen though, it needs a little more reshine than what was originally planned (ah crap, scope creep!).


As such, IF the Steam release happens, all of the text in the game will be receiving a rework. Originally there were no plans to change any text due to the work involved. While not all of the textboxes will be changed, every single one will be touched at least once to see if it needs changing. A friend of mine who works in the copy editor/writing field professionally have offered their services as well, so I'd also have an impartial third party taking a look and suggesting/working out changes.

While none of the character traits are planned to be changed (Mi'la will remain in the tsundere style, etc) how they get there -will- change, and a lot of the elements that were way out there will be reeled back in.

Since I plan on changing the text romhack style (ie, i'll change the text in place, and will avoid making new textboxes or deleting old ones so i don't have to risk breaking chains/tags in place) it won't be a blocker for other work, and it's planned to just be done in parallel with the other work.
Last edited by FyreWulff on Wed Apr 24, 2019 2:08 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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charbile
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Post by charbile »

I think this deserves a little bit of extra serious talk given a stream releape is sierus bizness

A) what's the purpose of a steam release?

B) wouldn't that require a lot more effort of giving the game a complete face lift to the point of it being a remake?

just idle thoughts brought up in discord: 1) sound fx, 2) textbox borders, 3) dialogue overhal, 4) character portraits, 5) steam trading cards, 6) why not battle scripting, 7) code in sprite menu instead of faking it with change color, 8) work in missed opportunities, 9) rework failed equipment design, 10) update all maps given layers are a thing, 11) change to widescreen, 12) raise the fps above 12

so it does kind of get into that weird territory

whatever you do or do not do, i wish you good fortune
Last edited by charbile on Wed Apr 24, 2019 8:12 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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FyreWulff
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Post by FyreWulff »

a) people really don't want to download random game links anymore, people want games via clients these days only
ab) the game would likely be called "Sword of Jade Classic" on steam like it is on Google Play btw as this communicates it as a re-release and if we ever get to a full 3D remake, the remake will get released there as "Sword of Jade"

b)
- sound fx are already being added
- i'm not sure textbox borders are needed but possible i guess?
- dialogue overhaul is required for steam release, if it doesn't happen, steam release isn't happening
- steam trading cards would deffo happen
- no battle scripting because battle scripting still doesn't exist
- changing the faked palette screen to real sprite/slices menu might take more time than just leaving it in place, unless certain overhauls are desired. I can take a look into it though.
- updating the maps are a pain in the slime because of the 4 map setup for every location, if the game had been made today it would have been one map with tileset tricks so changing the maps to layers almost requires making a new .rpg and porting Jade sideways into the OHR again, which triggers basically the entire game being remade again.
- re missed opportunities, these can be addressed, although we'll have to compare lists with each other and what's doable and what will have to remain missed
- equipment re-design is possible, you'll have to tell me what it is you want changed or done and i can figure out if it'd be too much
- i've wanted widescreen forever, even played around with super-wide 21:9 style at one point by modifying the view window, can note this as a possible thing to do
- raising the FPS also needs the engine to start supporting more frames for everything, otherwise i can't really tell. i don't have any qualms pushing the game up to 60fps.


re: character portaits and all other things that require Significant New Art, I may have a solution to that situation, and you'll be the first to know about that solution if it becomes concrete, that solution is also tied to it releasing on Steam.
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Fenrir-Lunaris
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Post by Fenrir-Lunaris »

FyreWulff wrote:steam trading cards would deffo happen
Image

Hello! I am a [s]reputable artist[/s] guy who has had experience doing artwork for Steam Trading cards before! If you are looking to commission artwork at some future time for some of the game's more iconic characters, I am available for your business needs!

Side note - recommending for whoever does them that they be the main cast of Dogero, Mi'La, Johan, Pyrus, and Gahn. If you want to get crazy then do Anon, Gitleh, the Firefox chick, Shoda, and Nix.
kingoftheconnors
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Anticipation

Post by kingoftheconnors »

Hey, is this still happening? I've been hounding the git repo for a year now, but nothing's been added since June.
ArtimusBena
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Post by ArtimusBena »

Antici......................................................
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FyreWulff
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Post by FyreWulff »

Currently in talks for something with [REDACTED] related to possibly changing the scale of the update. There's nothing really more I can say on that front, just that there's nothing to report right now, but you'll know for sure when I do have something to report.

The update not a matter of 'if' , it's "when". Also, I did say in the original OP that it could take more than a year before you see something :v: And it'd be safe to expect that the update would see release around a year after you'd see the announcement of where and what it'll be. We've already gone through a lot of pre-production discussion on things, but actual hands-to-tools work is being minimized to not waste effort.

One thing I can confirm for sure 100% that I said differently in the OP and had a 'maybe' post later is that all the dialogue for the game will be re-written no matter which scale we end up with.
Last edited by FyreWulff on Sun Mar 15, 2020 6:54 am, edited 5 times in total.
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FyreWulff
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Post by FyreWulff »

So I thought I should mention re: lack of updates for a while, two things happened:

- the coronavirus caused the funding source to have to delay the start of any funding, so that's gone for the moment


- i caught coronavirus myself from working at a pharmacy, so i've been dealing with the after-effects from that



even if funding doesn't return this will still move forward in some way in a not very long timespan from this post, but don't expect any specifically new info in this thread for a while. the slime discord is where you'll find me/char soundboarding stuff off people in the near future


take care
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polkakitty
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Post by polkakitty »

FyreWulff wrote:i caught coronavirus myself from working at a pharmacy, so i've been dealing with the after-effects from that
That's terrible to hear. It's weird, everyone I've heard of getting the coronavirus seems to have completely different symptoms, but they're all awful, and I sincerely hope you're able to get well soon.

When I played Sword of Jade, seeing all the innovations you made like recovering SP and gaining stats during battles depending on the skills you use, the skill system where you have a choice of upgrades for your skills, and the way different quests are available at each stage of the day/night cycle so every time you come back to a town there's something new to do, inspired me to step up the game systems and the scripting in my own tentative OHRRPGCE project. And I've loved playing it despite having to work around some technical issues, but it really deserves to be released in a form that doesn't have those issues, and that can be brought to an audience that doesn't have the technical expertise or the inclination to deal with them. I'm wishing you success with this new version, and to get through this situation and be healthy!
"It was right through those trees; I'm not insane
That's where the fin tried to drag me in
Don't look at me, look at where I'm pointing
Close your eyes, see what I see, Canajoharie..."
-- They Might Be Giants
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